Recently I visited St Johns Catholic College in Nowra NSW to speak with year 11 as part of our Haworth Music School Tour Program. The students were awesome and really got the key points of the presentation; Speak Up, Set Goals, Focus on Your Strengths, Practice Gratitude and Bounce Dont Break. Great kids and an awesome school.

Recently the Haworth Team and I visited our local special needs school in Shellharbour to donate a variety of musical instruments as part of our #RandomActsofMusic campaign. It wasn't just the kids who were excited! We all had a ball sharing the gift of music with these awesome kids and their amazing teachers!

The very talented Shenay Spinelli got some cool snaps from last week's School Show at Albion Park High School. Shout out to year 9 for being so good and to one particular student Dallas for his song about Watermelons and Tacos. Also had a great time working with the year 7 boys at De La Salle Catholic College in Carringbah earlier in the week...

Just wrapped up another workshop at Lake Illawarra PCYC with a group of teenage kids in need of a little guidance.

The cops and staff here do such an awesome job providing resources for young people to help them succeed in life and I'm stoked to be a part of it.

This was the second workshop I've conducted at the club and have more booked for later in the year. It's always a smaller more intimate group, only around four to five kids each time, but it means I can engage more individually with them and find out more about what they are interested in.

Just wrapped up two School tours this week with two awesome groups of young people both at Oak Flats PCYC and at Campbelltown Arts Centre! Lake Illawarra High next week and Nowra High the week after. Email me at glennh@haworthguitars.com.au if you want more info on what I do!! Have a top weekend people!!

After many many months of filming and editing, our fresh new mini-documentary #GenerationChange, which follows our anti-bullying Haworth Music School Tours, is launching at Greater Union Cinema's Shellharbour NSW on Wednesday November 12th. There will be live music performances on the night as well as interviews with the cast. All proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Tickets are $10 each and are available at either Haworth Music Store or online at http://www.haworthguitars.com.au/products/misc/2box-generation-change-ticket-postage-admit-one/

Rock 4 Regal is coming up next month with tickets already selling fast. The charity concert is in aid of thirty-year-old Shellharbour man Adam Regal and his Regal Regiment fighting Motor Neuron Disease.

You might have noticed all of the ice-bucket-challenge videos circulating the web recently with the aim of raising awareness for Motor Neuron Disease, a disease that affects voluntary muscle activity in the body. Adam was diagnosed 12 months ago, after losing his father and uncle to this tragic disease just a few years earlier.

Kiama Downs local Den Murray has teamed up with Adam to put on the Rock 4 Regal show in Kiama which will raise funds for the Motor Neuron research team at Macquarie University with ticket sales and raffle ticket sales all contributing to the cause.

The bands performing are all local artists who will be giving up their own time and talents for this great cause. Many of the band members know Adam and his family on a personal level.

Performing will be Furious Monk, who recently finished second in the recent LP Original Band Comp and have a cool Rage Against the Machine vibe about them. Metal guitar legend Sven Sellin from Segression will be showing off his new band Sentient who will also be on the bill as well as pop-punk locals Crash Tragic with bass player Paul Ditton being Adam’s brother-in-law. Also reforming for the show will be controversial metal band Fires Were Started and my own pop punk band from a few years back The Conspiracy Plan.

Den has recently finished up a lengthy US tour of his own with Aussie Rockers Arcane Saints after Den and his wife Bree moved to Melbourne a few years ago so Den could pursue his career in drumming.

This will be a great night for an awesome cause and I’m really proud to be a part of it.

Rock 4 Regal is on Friday October 24th at Kiama Leagues Club Auditorium. Tickets are selling fast and are priced at $10 each. They are available on Oztix.com.au or from Haworth Guitars.

Daniel Cartwright of Wicked Bee Productions is now just putting the finishing touches on our new documentary Generation Change. In this doco we confront the issue of bullying and take a deeper look at how it not only affects the young people involved but also how it affects their families at home. We look at how social media plays it's part in it all and interview Ness Love-Monk, the mother of Courtney Love, who at age 14, took her own life from excessive cyber-bullying.

We also interview behavioural therapist Colin Renton and psychologist Carla McNamara as well as students who have experienced bullying in school and online.

Our goal is to raise the awareness around this issue and to encourage young people to talk about it if they go through it themselves, while providing them with the tools to help deal with tough times.

This short doco will now be encorporated into my Haworth Music School Tour shows and will be shared via social media once it's been launched.

The launch date will be mid November so stay tuned for more details to follow on #GenerationChange

The UOW Unibar band comp final is on this week with a stellar line-up of fresh local muso’s.

After four heats and the semi-final, just five bands remain to have a crack at the biscuits. With $3000 studio time at Main Street, a $2000 film clip package from Laww Media and $1000 to spend at Haworth’s up for grabs, the top three bands will take home some killer goodies with the winners going on to compete at the regional finals in Sydney. Hopefully they can make it as far as Dlinkwnt last year and go all the way to the Nationals.

The semi-final last week saw We Came for Dinosaurs progress through to the final with great performances from Lucha Libre and Heavyset Dub who both narrowly missed out.

The final will be a tough one to judge with the five remaining bands all possessing unique talents and skills.

With a hoola hooping, golden leotard front-man and the eccentric Jack Tickner on lead guitar, Basil’s Kite will be no doubt be bringing the goods as well as the humour in the final.

Two piece indie-rock band El Grande will also be performing on the night with James Vann on guitar and vocals alongside Joe Mungovan on drums and vocals. These two are like a match made in heaven and have so much groove together that security will have their hands full keeping screaming college girls away from the stage.

Chuparosa will be there with all eight members, churning out some funky reggae tunes and bringing people to their feet as usual. They finished third in the recent LP Original Band Comp and will no doubt be bringing their A-game to the Unibar.

Rivet City have a tight folk-rock sound with killer harmonies and catchy vocal melodies and have a solid following around campus who I’m sure will be there to support them this week.

Completing the line-up are semi-final winners We Came for Dinosaurs, who had more screaming fans last week than I could count. The lead female vocalist really has something special about her and their southpaw guitarist can really play.

The UOW Unibar band comp final is on this Thursday August 21st at 7:30pm with tickets free for UOW students and $10 to everyone else.

The LP Original Band Competition has concluded it’s first year with the Grand Final being held at the Woonona Bulli RSL over the weekend just passed.

Of the original thirty-eight bands who entered the competition, only ten bands remained to perform at the final, which saw hundreds of music lovers turn out in support.

The artists who performed in the final were all diverse and extremely talented and really showcased the quality of musicianship we have here in the Illawarra and although I couldn’t make it to the show, my dad Phil Haworth filled me in on how the night panned out.

Third place went to eight-piece reggae/funk act Chuparosa, who always seem to have a way of getting the audience to their feet and on the D-floor. All are very talented musicians with an exceptional singer and top bloke leading them, Tay Plain.

Second place went to Furious Monk, with their heavy riffs and hip-hop vocals, these guys are not unlike the great Rage Against the Machine. Very talented musicians and a truck-load of attitude to boot.

First place went to indie-electro-pop band Glab, who really have a style of their own. Their catchy choruses are hard to get out of your head, but they somehow manage to make every song vastly different to the last. A well deserved win for the four-piece taking home the cash, music gear from Haworth’s and studio time from Main Street Studios.

Reports from the judges suggest that deciding on a winner was not an easy task to say the least with such a talented group of bands competing. Special mention has to go to the other bands who also made it to the final. Dlinkwnt, Steel City Muthafunkas, Mixtape for the Drive, Tomb for a Titan, Shoot the Breeze, The Dirty Headbangers and The Franco-Prussians all performed exceptionally well and will no doubt continue to further their music careers in the greater national music scene.

Congratulations to all the bands for doing so well making it so far and congratulations to Lincoln Piper for organising such a successful event. I look forward to next years being even bigger and better.

Usually my School Tour Shows consist of myself and an acoustic guitar, playing music and talking about bullying and anxiety. Today's show was a bit different at the Wollongong Flexible Learning Centre with Haworth Staff Members Matt Raftery and Dan Southern coming along for the show. Both of these gents are fine musicians and are no strangers to the stage which made it easy to connect with the students at the centre and put on a solid show...

In taking the Haworth Music School Tour through a number of different high schools this year and after talking to students, teachers, parents, counsellors and psychologists, I've seen what a huge effect bullying is having in schools today. Not only is it happening at school, but social media means that it is hard for students to escape it at home as well. Something must be done!

Connect With Glenn

“Glenn is an inspirational and motivational coach who guided me through challenging areas of my life I felt needed improvement. The activities I have undertaken have been challenging and powerful in initiating positive change in my life. I have…”